The Lion in the Living Room

1. The House Cat: New King of Beasts

Through the billowing bonfire smoke, Denise Martin may have glimpsed the truth: the house cat is the new king of beasts.

A surprising shift. While wild lions face extinction, their tiny house cat cousins have exploded in population, now numbering over 600 million globally. More kittens are born daily in the US than there are wild lions left. This dominance extends beyond sheer numbers, as cats increasingly preside over both natural and digital landscapes.

Global feline takeover. House cats outnumber dogs significantly and their population continues to climb worldwide, including vast numbers of strays. They have seized control of cities, continents like Australia, and even cyberspace. This rise is a stark contrast to the decline of most other wild cat species.

Contradictory relationship. Despite their immense power and status as one of the world's worst invasive species, house cats are cherished pets. This confounding affiliation, where we simultaneously adore and classify them as vermin, highlights the mysterious and sometimes maddening power cats wield over us, perhaps even suggesting a form of bewitchment.

2. From Prey to Partner: An Unlikely Alliance

Far from sharing food, humans and felines have spent most of our long mutual history snatching each other’s meals and masticating each other’s mangled remains—though to be perfectly honest, mostly they ate us.

Ancient conflict. For millions of years, humans and big cats were natural enemies, competing for meat and space. Our early ancestors were often prey for formidable felines like saber-tooths and giant lions, a dynamic that likely shaped human evolution, influencing our social behavior, communication, and even brain size as we became scavengers of their kills.

Agriculture changed everything. The Neolithic revolution, with the domestication of herd animals and plants, allowed humans to settle down. This shift ultimately spelled doom for many wild cats by destroying habitat and prey, but it created new opportunities for smaller carnivores like wildcats, who were attracted to human settlements by trash and the reduction of larger predators.

Wild cats in decline. Human expansion continues to push wild cats to the brink. Clearing land, introducing livestock (which cats then prey on), and direct conflict (poisoning, hunting) make coexistence nearly impossible. Today, many wild cat species, big and small, face extinction, while the house cat, uniquely adapted to human presence, thrives.

3. Cats Domesticated Themselves

In effect, Driscoll tells me, “House cats domesticated themselves.”

An unusual path. Unlike most domesticated animals, which humans actively bred for specific traits or utility, cats seem to have initiated the process themselves. The ancestor of all house cats, Felis silvestris lybica from the Near East, possessed a key trait: a subset of individuals were bolder and less fearful of humans than other wildcats.

Boldness rewarded. These intrepid wildcats were drawn to early human settlements by the abundance of food (trash, rodents). Those with less fear were more successful at exploiting this new resource and reproducing. This natural selection for boldness, rather than deliberate human breeding, drove the initial shift towards living alongside people.

Slow, subtle changes. Cat domestication has been remarkably slow and resulted in minimal physical changes compared to dogs. While dogs show dramatic variations in size and skull shape, house cats remain nearly identical to their wild ancestors, except for:

• Slightly shorter legs
• Elongated intestines (to handle varied human food)
• Reduced brain size (especially the fear-related forebrain)
• New coat colors (a recent development)

These subtle adaptations allowed cats to thrive in the human environment without sacrificing their core feline nature or dependence on humans for survival.

4. More Charm Than Utility

It does seem that, in a way, they bewitched us.

Lack of practical purpose. One of the enduring mysteries is why humans tolerated cats for millennia, given their limited practical contributions. Unlike dogs, who provided clear services like hunting, guarding, and labor from the outset, cats offered little tangible utility. Their supposed role as pest control is often exaggerated, especially against formidable modern rats.

The power of cuteness. Cats' success is largely attributed to their ability to tap into human emotions, particularly our nurturing instincts. They possess "baby releasers"—physical traits like round faces, large eyes, and small noses that resemble human infants and trigger an oxytocin response in us. Their meows can even mimic a baby's cry.

Feline enchantment. This "misfiring of our parental instincts" makes us find cats adorable and compels us to care for them, even when they offer little in return. Their enigmatic nature, combined with their infant-like appearance and subtle manipulation (like the "solicitation purr"), creates a powerful, almost magical hold over humans, explaining our deep, often irrational, affection.

5. Devastating Invasive Predators

The International Union for Conservation of Nature ranks house cats as one of the world’s 100 worst invasive species, an unusually glamorous addition to the icky litany of advancing fungi, mollusks, shrubs, and other brainless, aimless beings.

Global spread via humans. House cats have conquered nearly every corner of the globe, largely by hitchhiking on human ships and migrations. Sailors welcomed them for pest control and companionship, inadvertently introducing them to islands and continents where native wildlife had no defenses against a hypercarnivore.

Ecological destruction. Once introduced, cats become devastating predators, particularly on islands with naive, "tame" native species. They contribute to a significant percentage of island vertebrate extinctions and are considered the single biggest threat to mammals in Australia. Their impact includes:

• Killing billions of birds and mammals annually in the US alone.
• Preying on endangered species (wood rats, petrels, bilbies, lemurs).
• Spreading diseases like toxoplasmosis and feline leukemia.
• Causing "landscape of fear" effects that disrupt prey behavior.

Hyperpredation enabled by humans. Cats defy natural predator-prey ratios, especially in human-modified landscapes. Our provision of food (trash, pets) supports unnaturally high cat densities. These large populations then opportunistically hunt vulnerable native species, leading to extinctions even when primary prey (like invasive rabbits) is abundant.

6. The Power of the Cat Lobby

“Why do we show such affection and care for some animals but disregard the welfare of others?” the Australian ecologist John Woinarski writes to me.

A modern movement. The rise of cats as cherished pets, particularly since the mid-20th century, has fueled a powerful animal welfare movement focused on feline protection. Groups like Alley Cat Allies advocate fiercely for the rights of all house cats, especially free-roaming strays.

Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR). The central strategy of the cat lobby is TNR: capturing stray cats, sterilizing them, and returning them to their outdoor environment. This approach aims to reduce euthanasia in shelters and allow cats to live out their lives "in the natural landscape," often supported by human caregivers providing food and shelter.

Controversy and political clout. TNR is highly controversial, pitting cat advocates against conservationists who view outdoor cats as an ecological menace. Critics argue that TNR is ineffective at reducing populations unless nearly all cats are sterilized and that neutered cats still hunt. Despite scientific doubts, the cat lobby's significant political influence, fundraising power, and grassroots support have led many municipalities to adopt pro-TNR policies, often overriding ecological concerns.

7. The Brain Parasite Connection

This mysterious microorganism is spread by felines and is by now believed to inhabit the brains of one in three people worldwide, including some 60 million Americans.

Feline-dependent parasite. Toxoplasma gondii is a single-celled parasite that can infect any warm-blooded animal but can only reproduce in the guts of cats. Cats shed billions of infectious oocysts in their feces, which are then ingested by other animals (including humans) or eaten by prey, creating a vast transmission network.

Behavioral manipulation. In rodents, Toxoplasma infection causes bizarre behavior, making them lose their innate fear of cats and even become attracted to cat urine. This is hypothesized to be a parasitic manipulation to increase the chances of the rodent being eaten by a cat, allowing the parasite to complete its life cycle.

Potential human impacts. While often asymptomatic in healthy adults, Toxoplasma infection has been linked to a range of human conditions, including:

• Birth defects (congenital toxoplasmosis)
• Increased risk of violent death (suicide, car crashes)
• Correlation with schizophrenia and other mental illnesses
• Changes in personality and behavior (risk-taking, dogmatism, sociality)

The parasite's global spread is inextricably linked to the house cat's success, raising unsettling questions about the subtle ways felines might influence human minds and cultures.

8. Indoor Life: A Mixed Blessing

The truth is that cats’ pampered persistence within our flat, painted walls is an evolutionary feat just as radical as their survival on wind-raked subantarctic isles and volcano cones.

The rise of the indoor cat. Keeping cats exclusively indoors is a recent phenomenon, driven by urbanization and enabled by inventions like kitty litter. While it protects cats from outdoor dangers, it deprives these natural hunters of their core instincts and challenges their adaptability.

Stress and pathology. Despite comfortable surroundings, indoor life can be stressful for cats. Confinement, lack of stimulation, and living in close quarters with other cats (or humans) can lead to behavioral problems and health issues, including:

• Redirected aggression towards owners
• High-rise syndrome (falling from windows)
• Pandora syndrome (feline idiopathic cystitis), a stress-related illness

Cats train humans. Unable to fully adapt to our chaotic homes, cats often condition their owners to accommodate their needs. They use specific meows and purrs to elicit responses, and owners learn to adhere to strict schedules and provide "refuges" (cat-only spaces) to reduce feline stress. The trend of "Catification" involves extensively modifying homes to cater to cats' territorial and behavioral needs.

9. Breeding for Looks, Not Function

Perhaps this is how we will finally master these creatures: by breeding them to our will.

A recent endeavor. Unlike dog breeding, which has a long history of selecting for functional traits, formal cat breeding is a relatively recent Victorian invention. Due to cats' independent nature and indiscriminate mating habits, humans have had limited control over their genetic trajectory, resulting in much less physical diversity compared to dogs.

Focus on extremes and mutations. Modern cat breeding often focuses on arbitrary aesthetic extremes or naturally occurring mutations, leading to breeds like:

• Persians (flat faces, dense fur)
• Sphynx (hairless)
• Munchkins (dwarfism)
• Lykoi (partially hairless, "werewolf" appearance)

These traits are often based on single genes and may come with health or behavioral issues, sometimes compromising the cats' ability to survive without human intervention.

Hybridization. Another trend is creating hybrid breeds by crossing house cats with wild species (e.g., Bengals from Asian leopard cats, Savannahs from servals). These cats mimic wild feline looks but retain some wild behaviors, often leading to challenges for owners and sometimes ending up in wild cat sanctuaries. This practice also raises conservation concerns by potentially diluting wild bloodlines.

10. The Internet Cat Phenomenon

The Internet is much more like poetry than a novel.

Digital conquest. House cats have achieved unprecedented dominance online, becoming ubiquitous figures in memes, videos, and social media. This digital takeover is a logical extension of their physical conquest, enabled by their confinement indoors which makes them easy to film and photograph.

Viral and memetic success. Cat content is highly viral and memetic, spreading rapidly and adapting across platforms. Their success is linked to:

• Sheer numbers (more cats mean more content).
• Universal appeal (animal imagery transcends cultural barriers).
• Suitability for online formats (their sudden, ambush-like movements fit short videos).

Inscrutable faces. Crucially, cats' relatively impassive faces, a result of their solitary evolutionary history, act as blank canvases. Humans, hardwired to read faces, project emotions and narratives onto these feline visages, making them ideal for captions and memes. Celebrity cats like Grumpy Cat and Lil Bub are often famous precisely for facial anomalies that create expressive "mirages."

A modern cult. The online cat craze mirrors historical human fascinations with felines, such as the ancient Egyptian cat cult. Both demonstrate a human tendency to project meaning and even divinity onto cats, highlighting our complex mix of reverence and control over these creatures, who continue to thrive in the spaces we create, both physical and virtual.

Last updated: May 31, 2025